HawK

That's why I love these forums I could have written a post about what I think the 'NO-consensus-XI' is instead, but where's the fun in that. Be brave and write your own XI - I want to see it

Gonna be brave and start this thread. Had a look and couldn't find one already. What is your all-time PL XI and who manages us ? No crazy criteria or formation required, as long as they've played a game for us is all I ask (or managed a game :P) I'll go first - First XI GK : Shay Given - Our all-time leading appearances player in the PL. Cat-like agility, one of the best shot-stoppers in the business. Was in the sticks for forever. We never wanted a new goalkeeper when he was at the club and had a burning passion to win things. RB : Kieran Trippier - A cut above anyone who came before him, the gulf in class between him and everyone else in the team when he first played was nothing short of breathtaking. For those few months until he was injured, he put this club on his back and pulled us back from the brink, scoring a couple of fantastic free kicks whilst under so much pressure in the process. A true captain in every sense of the word, lead by example on and off the pitch. CD : Fabian Schar - These past two seasons he's cemented this position and for me is our best ever PL central defender. What can't he do? He can strike a ball, he can run with it, he can tackle and he plays with a real edge. That goal against PSG capped it off. I think we all excepted him to score that, that's how good he is. CD : Jonathan Woodgate - Like when Trippier came in recently, when Woodgate joined the team, his elegance on the ball, effortless positioning, economy of movement, complete serenity with him on the pitch and head-up play was something I've just not seen before in a defender for us. His ceiling was unlimited, had he not messed up his move to Real Madrid and the injuries I think he'd be more widely recognised as one of the great PL-era centrebacks. LB : José Enrique - We've not been blessed with great left backs in my time supporting us.. Pearce, Beresford, and even Ollie Bernard were decent. José Enrique came in and took some time to find his feet but I don't recall a player ever beat him on the outside, it just didn't happen. Strength, pace and an old-fashioned approach to defending. Best I've seen in Black and White until this season. RW : Nolberto Solano - An assist machine. Clever. Set pieces. Silky. Diminuitive. And could he cross a football. Solano to Shearer was a done deal. Played across two spells for us and I loved watching him play. CM : Sandro Tonali - Maybe my first controversial pick. When we've got other players like Lee, Batty, Cabaye and Speed. Tonali is one of the first names on the team sheet for Italy. It might have taken some time to convince all our fans, but he really is the real deal. Passion, determination, engine, workrate, one-touch passing, offensive runs, attitude. CM : Bruno Guimaraes - So often just looks like he's on another level to everyone else. If his ball retention is top-class, his passing is elite. I sometimes take for granted who good he is at passing. The cross-field balls are one thing, but have you noticed how he strikes a throughball? He buts backspin on it. How do you even phyiscally accomplish this? It's so clever yet never gets spoken about. His attitude, his resilience, bravery, quality. The best midfielder we've ever had. LW : Laurent Robert - Insane production, insane striking of a ball, just an insane player in every sense of the word. Fiery, didn't give 2 fks and went for everything. Did he track back and help out? God no, that wasn't Laurent Robert. He more than made up for it with his offensive output though. Never seen a player hit a ball so hard and keep it as low as Laurent did so consistently. Wonderful player. FW : Alan Shearer - What needs to be said? Powerful, always hit the target, but was so, SO good at holding the ball up and being the back-to-goal pivot that let players run off him - whether it was Bellamy, Robert, Dyer, Lee or anyone else. He could shoot from anywhere, was great at crossing too and could take a freekick as well as anyone. Suffered career-debilitating knee injuries but modified his game to still be effective. One of a kind. FW : Alexander Isak - He's gone above Ferdinand for me. He does everything well. The pace, dropping of the shoulder, how he gets around people is the best of any striker we've ever had. Ferdinand had the pace and power, Cole had the magical touch of being able to pick out a shot from anywhere, Beardsley could walk around a team if you let him. But Isak can square anyone up and go 'Yeah, watch this' and do we watch. It might seem simple, but like Shearer, he always hits the target. Give me a striker who hits the target any day over one that'll always blast it and half the time it's goalbound - because with on-target shots you get rebounds. Manager : Eddie Howe - He's the best manager we've had in the PL in my opinion. No other manager we've had has grown players as much as he has. Very intelligent, articulate and does not get flustered. A man who's only managed Bournemouth and Burnley before before holds court in the Newcastle dressing room with world-class players like Bruno, Trippier, Sandro and Isak. Master-minded the turnaround that saw us retain our PL status and then next season secured Champions League football with almost the same group of players. Continues to evolve his tactics and mindset as the seasons progress, and we seem to be on a continual upwards trajectory even now. ------------------------------------------------ Second XI GK : Nick Pope - A very similar goalkeeper to Given in what he brings to the table, but not quite at the level of Shay in my opinion. RB : Habib Beye - Charistmatic, skillful and effortless. Before Trippier, our best RB to play for us. CD : Phillipe Albert - What a player, 'central defender' was just where he was put my Sky in our pre-game lineup but he went everywhere! Fantastic on the ball. CD : Fabricio Coloccini - Not to be overlooked, and seen by many as one of the lights of a very dark period in our recent history. Solid and classy. Maradonna loved him. LB : Lewis Hall (pushing into First XI for me already) - Oh my what a player Lewis Hall is. 20 at the time of writing this. I've never seen a player makes things look this easy since Woodgate. Calmness and serenity personified. Devistatingly effective. Time will tell if he can consistently produce the defensive side to match his undoubted world-class quality on the ball. RW : Hatem Ben Arfa - One of my favourite ever players. I would happily argue with anyone that prime Ben Arfa was the best in the world at taking a football past a player. This includes comparing with prime Messi. Messi could do 100 other things better than Ben Arfa, but purely on getting from point A to point B with X players inbetween, HBA gets my vote every time. That kung-fu kick by De Jong on him was absolutely criminal and robbed us of a prime HBA for a long time. CM : Dietmar Hamann - Probably another controversial one. But another player that when he arrived just looked better than anyone else on the pitch. Such a shame that he left for Liverpool so soon, citing 'home sicknessness' ? I mean, I really haven't ever worked that one out to be honest. Regardless, wonderful long-range shooting ability and engine. I loved watching him play and I was devastated when he left, more so than nearly any other player we've sold since. CM : Yohan Cabaye - Agressive, dirty, could strike a football with venom, engine, guts. Loved watching Yohan play for us. LW : David Ginola - How can a player that tall be that good on the ball? The most two-footed player I've ever seen - left foot for control, right foot for power. Didn't have as much raw output as Gordon or Robert, and I think if Gordon continues to perform as he is, Gordon's taking his spot here for me. FW : Peter Beardsley - Past his prime for us in the PL, but had such unnerving skill with the ball at his feet. As I wrote above in reference to Isak, Peter could literally walk a football past an entire team. His partnership with Cole was sensational. But for me, Beardsley enabled Cole. We wouldn't have seen Cole be as good as he was without Beardsley next to him. Beardsley got the best out of the players around him. FW : Les Ferdinand - Power, pace, even better at heading than Shearer in my opinion. A battering ram. Literally scored a goal with arse from near the centre circle charging down Dmithri Kharine against Chelsea. But a confidence player if there ever was a definition of one. When he was on it, he was on it. Ferdinand & Shearer is one of the scariest striking duos I've ever seen, even in an era with so many other good partnerships. Manager : Kevin Keegan - Took a team straight from the division below to finishing 3rd in the PL and cemented us as perennial challengers in those early years. A reckless abandon for traditional tactics, built on pure pace and directness - play came from the wrings and whilst the ball was carried up the pitch on the sides, our entire team motored into the opponent's box ready to cause damage from the eventual cross. As we all know, we didn't concede as many as the media likes to portray that we did and his legacy of creating the 'entertainers' sits with us even to this day and creates a pull to us that other clubs just don't have. Notable omissions Rob Lee - For me he was always a bit of a latter-day Kevin Nolan. Great goalscorer, but I wanted more from him. Andy Cole - Needed other players to enable him - Beardsley at Newcastle and Yorke at Man Utd. Undoubtedly gifted, but all the 4 players I've put ahead of him could lead the line alone if needed. I don't think Cole could do that. Anthony Gordon - Time will tell - I don't think he's quite there yet, but on raw numbers he's probably jumping ahead of Ginola for me by the end of this season if he keeps it up. Cheick Tiote - A great defensive midfielder, I just don't think he's better than Speed, or Tonali or Bruno. Cabaye was always the better of the two. Gary Speed - Great in the air, solid in the middle, the definition of a determined steady-eddie. Always available, always reliable, box-to-box. Wonderful player for anyone to dovetail from. But I think the 4 I've picked above him all had more ability. Sir Bobby - For me the third best. Why not higher than Keegan or Eddie? In my view, he didn't get as much from his players as he could have. The team he had was fantastic - Shearer, Robert, Solano, Bellamy, Dyer (the last two when fit), Speed, Woodgate. I think we should have been challenging for the title. You might disagree and I respect that, but a team of that calibre I think should have had a better return.

Yep - I think we're pretty much saying the same thing. As a pure 'keeper' in the traditional sense, I agree Dubs isn't very good. For the moment, if we can restrict the amount of keeping he has to do (with the defence in front of him that we have now I think that's something we can certainly do quite well), with our current shape and style, he's ahead of Pope purely from an in-possession perspective. If the opponents have the ball, then I want Pope in the nets. In the summer I want a new no.1 too - I just really hope that Howe's seeing the value in a ball-playing keeper and not just getting another shot stopper. If Dubs' legacy is we end up with a ball-playing keeper, I'll be a happy man.

I think we'll just have to agree to disagree. Pope was better in a team with a high line that needed a sweeper keeper. Dubs with a high line just doesn't work because he doesn't really leave the box. With a low defensive line, and re-starting play, Dubs is the better option. He'd got good control and good long-passing as well so he can initiate either way, he's a good 2-way keeper in that regard. For how we play now, for me Dubs is the better option. As for the errors, he only had one save to make vs Arsenal and he made it. We've conceded 2 in 7 including games away at Man Utd, Spurs, Arsenal since he's come in. Correlation is not causation, but for me it's not a case that used to be when Longstaff played we won, but none of us could quanity why. We can clearly see what Dubs is contributing in this run.

I think Dubs should remain our no.1 until summer personally. I posted a few pages back about his tactical impact on the team. It's not just Tonali at 6 that's helped us on this run.

Danny Olmo no less, top talent

Are we the second best team in the league right now ? I'd fancy us home or away against anyone except Liverpool

This was the stand-out thing for me last night. They pressed the fuck out of BDB whenever the opportunity presented, and some of his passes into Hall were less than ideal.

I haven't written much post-Arsenal, and I watched the game without having the match thread open. But this is the one player I want to write about now. He actually looked a level above Arsenal, all of them. I'm not exaggerating. His calmness on the ball, he moves with efficiency and without any loss of energy doing things unnecessarily. The perfect passes, the ball retention, the striking. He's ALWAYS running beyond Gordon. He's not afraid to ball carry in the opponent's half. I think he was the best player on the pitch, his quality for me is above everyone in our team and Arsenal's. Everyone. If anyone has a safety net in this team it's Dan Burn, because Lewis Hall is next to him. If Dan's under pressure, he knows every single time he can knock it to Hall, any pass will do, and Hall will not lose it. 9 times out of 10 Hall will find a player in black and white, and when he can't, he doesn't lose it, he lumps it which is what you have to do. Decision making is absolutely unreal for a lad of his age. He might not have had the most impactful game, but in raw ability, I believe he's our best player. He might not be as unpredictable, but his first touch and decisions are on another level to even Isak. Isak can do things that Hall can't at the moment purely from experience and the position he plays, like dragging defenders around with his movement and the snap shots. Isak can make mistakes, can miss the target and lose the ball and it's forgotten 5 minutes later if he scores. If Hall loses the ball or makes a mistake we concede, the stakes are far higher. He's 20, good lord. I want to bookmark this post because I think I might come back to this post in a couple of years when he's genuinely considered the best LB in the world.

I don't think he's ever going to be the England manager. Howe's tactical style is one of meticulous, drilled scenarios combined with elite-level fitness to execute them. He just wouldn't have the necessary time to implement what works for him in a setup when he barely sees the players. And long may he continue.

I seem to remember (might be a dream I'm old) that people called Botman a 'Rolls Royce' of a defender when he came to us after his first few performances. Well, if Botman's the Rolls, then Schar's gotta be Bond's Aston Martin

Aye, what's not to like about our play tbh. Love watching us right now.

tl;dr; 60k expansion or 70k new stadium

Can add Anderson and Wood to the Danny Simpson club of 'I left Newcastle to win the league'

Forest doing a Leicester

Probably the most emotionally intelligent man in the league.

Love stuff like that mini table

Can't wait until you all get up to speed on the Monty Hall problem

Mbuemo does not look 25, hair or no. Full beard and seems to have been around for years as well. 25yr old Mbuemo for 50m, yes please.

Have only just seen that Mbuemo is 25. We should spend our whole pot and mortgage our ground to get him imo

I need some graphs to inject into myself !

Lots of huff but no puff, Spurs toothless for all their endeavours.

Andy Townsend has said it's Willock's role to try and hang on to the ball and receive some passes. Has he watched Willock play

He's not going to get tired Homer!